Kaman K-MAX K-1200: The Helicopter Built Only to Lift
The Kaman K-1200 K-MAX lifts 6,000 pounds on 85 gallons an hour and seats one. Full specifications, the payload-by-altitude curve, and why only 60 were built.
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Load charts, cost anatomy, and regulatory explainers for the estimators, engineers, and project managers who plan heavy lift work. Figures are verified and regulations are cited, so the numbers hold up when you take them into a bid.
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The Kaman K-1200 K-MAX lifts 6,000 pounds on 85 gallons an hour and seats one. Full specifications, the payload-by-altitude curve, and why only 60 were built.
A tower flies only if it was designed to. The practical civil ceiling is near 20,000 lb per pick, which decides guyed versus self-supporting in design.
Chairlift towers are flown by helicopter where lift lines have no road. How medium and heavy helicopters set an entire ski lift line in a few summer days.
Helicopter payload is dynamic: it falls roughly 3% per 1,000 ft of density altitude, so high, hot sites cut capacity well below the brochure figure.
A helicopter lift is won in the planning. The full pre-lift process, from site survey and load engineering to the FAA-reviewed lift plan and load sign-off.
US civil helicopters top out near 28,000 pounds on the hook; the Mi-26 lifts 44,000. The full capacity table, with the density altitude math behind every number.
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